Hard to Catch Up

Last week my family and I took a vacation down to Atlanta, GA to visit my brothers and our parents before they headed back to Guatemala. It was fantastic trip and time of fellowship. However, the sad part about it was that I had to come back!

Have you ever been away from your work for a week, and when you return there is twice as much stuff as normal waiting for you, and you spend most of your time trying to catch up and never get anywhere? It seems to me that life would be easier if we just worked through the vacation so that it isn't overwhelming when we come back? It seems impossible for me right now to catch up!

Well, as I was thinking of a thought (huh?!), I thought about those times in our lives where we, regretfully, take a spiritual vacation. You know what I'm talking about, those times when we Christians act as though we were the owner of our lives. I find that it is a lot harder to catch up to where I was spiritually before going on "vacation." It seems to me that the Christian life would just be easier if we were to stay faithful, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and then having to catch up again... and again... and again...

Just a thought...

Enoch

Genesis 5:21-24
(21) And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
(22) And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
(23) And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
(24) And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

There are only a few verses about Enoch in the Bible. You have these ones here, and then Jude mentions him in passing as being a prophet and the seventh from Adam, and Hebrews lists him as being a man of faith, a man that walked by faith.

God "took" Enoch it says in Genesis 5. Hebrews 11 says that Enoch was "translated." I think all spiritually minded Christians would love the idea of being so close to God that He decides to do something miraculous to us, so that, instead of dying, we are just taken up to be with Him!

How then can we be like Enoch? What was it about Enoch and his faith that made him walk with God, a walk which was quite different than the normal walk with God?

Well, one verse jumped out to me with what I think contains the answer: Genesis 5:22 "And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:" Don't read that too fast. Take out the prepositional phrase about when the walking was (that is, take out "after he begat Methuselah"), and you get: "Enoch walked with God three hundred years."

300 years? Are you kidding me? I get all excited when I go for a whole week "walking with God." Enoch walked with God for 300 years. Now, you will argue, they lived longer then - the average lifespan was 900 years or so. That is true, but that does not mean that the time went faster for them. Their days were still 24 hours long. Their years were still 365 days or so on the average.

For 300 years, Enoch walked with God. It does not say nor imply that he was perfect. But it does say (I refer to Hebrews) and imply that he was faithful. Every day, every week, every month, every year for 300 years, Enoch walked with God.

That's a long time. What a good example of Faith.

Just a thought...

How Have You Proved Him?

As we were singing in church last night... "Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him. How I've proved Him o'er and o'er." I was thinking about ways in which I have proved Jesus in my life.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you ask yourself, How have I proved Jesus? How have I tried Him?

I have asked Him to answer prayers in my life, and He has. I have asked Him to make known certain paths, and He has done these things and not let me down. He has been faithful to His word every step of the way. It is great that His mercies are new every morning, that great is His faithfulness!

But, if I were to be honest with myself, and ask myself, what's the first thing that comes to my mind when I ask that question, How have I proved Jesus? It has to do with my sinfulness. Every time I sin, I am trying Jesus' longsuffering and forbearance towards me. I am proving that He indeed has washed all of my sins in His blood.

I am reading in Revelation right now, and a couple times I have seen that phrase about the Lamb having washed our sins in His blood. I trust Him with my salvation, but I have proved Him o'er and o'er and o'er and o'er... 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.

Just a thought...

No More Veterans

No, my title is not a suggestion to disband the military!

A veteran is someone that used to fight in the military. It is someone that used to stand fast in his post. it is someone that used to be at a place where they would give up their lives for their country.

In the Spiritual battle, we have WAY TOO MANY veterans! We have way too many people that used to fight in the battle against Satan and his wiles. We have way too many people that used to stand fast in his post defending against the attacks, protecting their families, protecting their churches. We have way too many people that used to be at a place where they would give up their lives for their place of citizenship: the heavenly kingdom.

We need to have no more veterans! At least not in the spiritual war.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 says, "...there is no discharge in that war..." If there is no discharge in the spiritual war, if God doesn't come down and say to the person, 'You've done your fighting, you can go home now and relax,' then the only other option I can think of is that the person that used to be fighting is now AWOL. He is absent, without leave. God didn't discharge him from the battle, but he's home now, doing what he wants - without God's permission.

Pastor Grace last night preached on old people... Sorry, but he did. He preached on staying in the battle. Joshua was old and stricken in years, and the Lord said unto Him, thou art old and stricken in years (Joshua 13:1)! But He goes on to say to him, and there are yet many battles to fight.

Regardless of your age, stay in the fight. Let's not have any more "veterans" in this war - or should I say - let's not have any more "deserters!?"

Just a thought...

Committment in Christianity

On the brink of tomorrow's Men's Conference, put on by Rick Grape, I have had 'Committment' on my mind. One of the things that Rick has taught me constantly is committment and faithfulness. So, today I was reading the blog from Jeff Adams, pastor of Kansas City Baptist Temple, and he ends up quoting something that someone else wrote... and I thought I would take today's post as an opportunity to point at that, and hopefully to help us all be encouraged to be faithful to where you are. And as you'll see if you read it, that charge is given especially to those interested in missions.

Anyway, here it is:

Jeff Adams

Great Expectations

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man...

That's a good lesson to remember when we start to develop expectations from man. I mean most of you were probably expecting a post from me earlier than right now, but to demonstrate my point I have held off until now... Um, no, really... I was... or, I suppose it's possible that I just didn't have anything in my mind worth writing about (and some of you would argue that I still don't!). I know there are things that we rely on man for, and I don't know if it'd be possible to ever get away from that, but the more we depend on man, the more we should be ready for disappointment.

But God is faithful... I'm glad that He never changes, and that His word is true from the beginning, and that all that He has said can be depended and relied upon. Faith comes by hearing of the word of God. I believe that's true because the more we hear it and practice it in our lives, the more we experience its truth. The more we hear of man and examine what man says... the more flawed we realize that they/we are.

Anyway, just a late thought...

Looking Unto Jesus

Looking Unto Jesus...

No, I'm not just stealing the blog title from someone who hasn't posted much recently. Hebrews 12:2 tells us the necessary component of running the faithful Christian race. Beginning in vs. 1: "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

The previous chapter tells us story after story of men that ran their races faithfully - full of faith. In order for us to run faithfully, we need to simply look unto Jesus. Hudson Taylor said it better than I can, so I'll just quote him:

"How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all He is for us; His life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith... but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity."

Just a thought...

Andy Hinds

God's Faithfulness

(Jer 33:20) Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
(Jer 33:21) Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.

These and other verses tell us that God gave the day and night as signs of His covenant that He had made with people. Particularly here, with David and with the Levites. Not getting into the covenants today, but rather into His faithfulness. He says when you stop having days and nights, when the sun stops rising and the moon and stars are no more, then, and only then, should you start doubting God's faithfulness... The sun came up this morning... last night I saw the moon too... He will keep His word!

We sang last night in our very last church service at the old building, 1039 North Greece Rd, the song from Lamentations 3: Great is Thy Faithfulness. I will miss that old building. It is where I was saved, baptized, commissioned with my parents to go to Guatemala, married, dedicated my children, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff... But I look forward to staying faithful to God in our new building at 990 Manitou Road (oh, and I love that it is only a mile and a half away from our house!!)

God is faithful. He will keep His word and His promises to us. But just as with His omnipresence, His faithfulness is good for us, but it also can have negative consequences. Because He is faithful to His word, we should not expect Him to start allowing things that He hasn't allowed in the past. Sin is not going to, all of a sudden, be acceptable in His eyes.

He has proven Himself faithful to me. Time for me to show myself faithful to Him. Just a thought...

a broken tooth

(Pro 25:19) Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a
broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

Sarah gets to have her four wisdom teeth pulled today, so I decided to lookup a verse about teeth. I almost used this one:

Zech 9:7: And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations
from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God,

I thought that was fitting for the day (taking blood out of the mouth...), and a reminder that we are supposed to be "for our God" not against Him.

Then I thought about using Amos 4:6

Amos 4:6: And I also have given you cleanness of teeth... yet have ye not
returned unto me, saith the LORD.

What a good thing to know that God gave us toothbrushes. And a reminder that we are supposed to return unto Him.

I could have used Matthew 5:38-39:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth: (39) But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

What a good reminder to humble ourselves and not worry about taking revenge on our enemies. Jesus will straighten everything out when He comes back - not to worry. He'll do a much better job taking vengeance than we could.

But, I picked the verse above, Proverbs 25:19, "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble." This does not mean that a man is only unfaithful in the time of trouble. I am the kind of guy that when trouble comes, I will step up to the plate and be the man to fix it. I'll do what it takes. But, the unfaithful man is unfaithful when there is no trouble. He doesn't stick by the stuff when things are good. When trouble comes, even though he might step up then, the confidence in him is no good. We need to be faithful in the good times as well as in the times of trouble.

If not, it's like a broken tooth - Speaking of which, did I mention that Sarah's getting all four wisdom teeth pulled today? One of them is impacted (whatever that means). So, everyone enjoy your steaks for lunch today! (And I'm sure Sarah's not opposed to having you pray for her too.)